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Sunday, 16 September 2018

Shape Detection now with Google Chrome 70 Beta

So Chrome has just turned a decade old and Google celebrated by making some major updates like an almost full change of the user interface and like with all major updates- a performance improvement as well. But that’s not all that was in store for Chrome. Google also added shape detection and other features to boost security as well, like using biometrics in web based applications. But the tinkering is not over just as yet. Google recently released its beta for Chrome 70 that includes the shape detection, web authentication and some other updates as well.

Shape Detection in Chrome:

Google uses this shape detection API to bring a device’s feature of detecting faces, barcodes and text to web pages.

Shape detection constitutes three APIs in one bundle. You have the face detection software, barcode detection API in shape detection and of course text detection API also in the shape detection API. Basically the shape detection API pretty much does as the name describes but for further information Google has given its own description of what you can expect from its shape detection API.

For face detection in the shape detection API- given the image bitmap or face or blob even, the face detection API gives you the location of that face and the eyes, nose and mouth in that face.

To gain more control over the process you can always prioritize speed over performance when it comes to search results for faces. You could even limit the number of faces given as results, using this method in shape detection.

The barcode detection API in shape detection API decodes the bar codes or QR codes for you into strings with values ranging from single sets of digits to multi line texts.

The text detection API in shape detection API is meant to read Latin- 1 text used in images.

The use of shape detection in Chrome could open up a host of useful opportunities for developers. Adding facial recognition in shape detection API could mean better security like Apple’s FaceID. Text detection too has a lot of opportunities where it can be used in.

QR or barcode reading while it will be more useful in other places, it is less useful in places like the US where QR codes or barcodes are not used much.

Web authentication on Chrome:

To add more security Google has added Web authentication update with support for a PublicKeyCredential type. This allows web based applications to use and create strong cryptographically attested credentials for their users.

This feature was present in Chrome 67 for desktop by default and now has been activated for Chrome Android as well.

Another feature added by web authentication on Chrome is the use of finger print or biometrics. This uses the feature present on phones or the mac to give users extra security when using web based applications. That means on various websites, web operators can ask for your finger print using the scanners on your phone or mac to verify your identity.